(April 13): China announced a series of policy incentives for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between President Xi Jinping and the island’s opposition leader, Cheng Li-wun.
The measures include facilitating the sales of Taiwan’s agricultural and fishery products and investment into China, as well as promoting the resumption of certain outbound travel to the island, according to an official statement on Sunday. The steps are aimed at promoting the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office said.
The moves come as Cheng concludes her visit to China, marking the first such trip by a Kuomintang chairperson in nearly a decade. The measures are consistent with Beijing’s broader strategy of engaging Taiwan’s opposition figures, while maintaining pressure on the ruling administration led by President Lai Ching-te.
China said on Sunday it will also explore the establishment of a “regularised communication mechanism” between the Kuomintang, Taiwan’s main opposition party, and the Chinese Communist Party, according to the statement.
Tourism and agriculture-linked stocks in Taiwan gained early on Monday, with a sub-index of Taiwanese tourism stocks rising as much as 3.2% and outperforming the broader benchmark. Phoenix Tours International jumped by the 10% daily limit.
In response, Taiwan’s government agency in charge of relations with China said in a statement on Sunday that any regular communication must not violate Taiwanese law. It also rebuked the measures, stating that China’s economic concessions to Taiwan can be withdrawn at any time and are, in essence, a form of coercion.
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To be sure, the measures announced on Sunday largely reflect a resumption of policies first announced when the Beijing-friendly KMT was in power from 2008 to 2016. Some of those policies, such as allowing individuals to travel to Taiwan, haven’t taken effect under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.
Taiwan’s government has reiterated that any cross-strait political negotiations require official authorisation. Lai, who presides over the ruling DPP, has said Taiwan is open to exchanges with China but not at the expense of democracy and national interests.
Beijing, for its part, has refused to engage directly with Lai and the DPP, which it views as favouring Taiwan independence. This has contributed to a continued freeze in formal cross-strait communication.
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The latest measures come against the backdrop of long-standing disruptions to people-to-people exchanges, particularly in tourism. Travel between China and Taiwan has been curtailed since 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic, with Beijing halting most individual travel permits and group tours.
Both Taipei and Beijing have traded blame over those disruptions. Taiwan maintains that reopening should proceed in a healthy and orderly manner through official consultation mechanisms, while China has been accused by Taipei of creating obstacles by restricting outbound travel.
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